THIS is Meeks:And this is Engel:OK, my collectivist children, let's try that again:

"ALL HAIL MEEKS AND ENGEL!"

Right.

Well, folks, it seems Meeks and Engel have a bright idea. It will probably work out just about the same as all collectivist ideas, that is to say, both badly and bloodily. I just received this email and link from a good friend who is long experienced in the firearms business. His comment:

"This guy and the 53 co-signers is going to get someone hurt. . . Asking the ATF to get more aggressive is irresponsible. What's next -- shooting people like Olofson for suspected violations? The ability to import has been stepped on by ATF for years, you can't even get stripped barrels imported. This letter is truly dangerous."

Chairman of the House Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Leads Letter with 53 Members of Congress

Washington, D.C.--Congressman Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, wrote a letter signed by 53 Members of Congress urging President Obama to “return to enforcement of the law banning imports of assault weapons, which was previously enforced during the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.” The letter was also led by Congressman Michael Castle (R-DE) and Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY).

“The alarming prevalence of imported assault weapons in the US has put our nation’s police officers at risk. Returning to the Bush 41/Clinton enforcement of the ban on imported assault weapons will protect our brave police forces and all people throughout New York and the United States,” said Rep. Engel.

Engel added that returning to enforcement of the imported assault weapons ban is “a no-brainer that would require no legislative action.”

In recent years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has quietly abandoned enforcement of the import ban (which was authorized by provisions in the 1968 Gun Control Act and enforced by Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton). As a result, the civilian firearms market is flooded with imported, inexpensive military-style assault weapons, primarily from former Eastern bloc countries including Romania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia. Importers are also able to skirt the restrictions by bringing in assault weapons parts and reassembling them with a small number of US-made parts. Assault weapon “parts kits” for assembly by individuals are also being imported. ATF has further weakened the prohibition by placing certain extremely problematic assault rifles on the "curios or relics" list, making certain firearms automatically eligible for importation.

"Our failure to enforce restrictions on imported assault weapons is affecting our bilateral relationship with Mexico," said Rep. Engel. "We must do more to support our friends in Mexico whose drug war is fueled by firearms flowing south from the United States, many of which should never have entered the US in the first place.”

5,661 people died in Mexico in 2008 alone as a result of drug-related violence. This is more than double the 2007 total of 2,773. Over 90% of firearms confiscated yearly in Mexico orginate in the United States. As Chairman of the House Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Rep. Engel is a strong supporter of the Merida Initiative – a US-Mexico security partnership announced in late 2007. However, he also believes that the US must fulfill certain domestic obligations under the Merida Initiative, including an enhanced commitment to curb the illegal trafficking of firearms from the US into Mexico.

The full text of the letter and signatories are below:

Dear Mr. President:

We write to urge you to return to enforcement of the ban on imported assault weapons, including those that are fully manufactured abroad as well as those imported as parts, which was previously enforced during the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. We believe that this issue has important implications for domestic public safety, homeland security, and our bilateral relationship with Mexico.

In the last eight years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has almost completely abrogated the ban on imported assault rifles. This ban – first established nearly 20 years ago – was authorized by provisions in the 1968 Gun Control Act allowing ATF to prohibit the importation of firearms and ammunition that are not “particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.” The import restriction is independent of the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, and was not affected by its “sunset” in 2004.

The ban on assault weapon imports was first enforced by the George H.W. Bush Administration in response to growing threats to law enforcement personnel from the increased use of assault weapons by drug traffickers and in mass shootings, like the Stockton schoolyard massacre in 1989. The import restrictions were later strengthened in 1998 by the Clinton Administration to address foreign manufacturers that were evading the ban by making minor cosmetic changes to their weapons. The definition was changed to include any assault rifle with the "ability to accept a detachable large capacity magazine originally designed and produced for a military assault weapon.”

Unfortunately, in recent years, ATF has quietly abandoned enforcement of the import ban. As a result, the civilian firearms market is flooded with imported, inexpensive military-style assault weapons from primarily former Eastern bloc countries including Romania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia. Importers are also able to skirt the restrictions by bringing in assault weapons parts and reassembling them with a small number of US-made parts. Assault weapon “parts kits” for assembly by individuals are also being imported. ATF has further weakened the prohibition by placing certain extremely problematic assault rifles on the "curios or relics" list, making certain firearms automatically eligible for importation.

The noxious results of reversing long-established policy extend beyond our borders and are directly affecting our foreign policy. Assault weapons are being smuggled in bulk from U.S. border states to Mexico where they are used by narco-traffickers to fuel a drug war that is killing Mexican law enforcement and other officials at alarming rates.

The violence in Mexico has reached crisis proportions. In December, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora reported that the total number of organized crime-related homicides in 2008 had reached 5,700, more than double the previous record of approximately 2,700 set in 2007. The 2008 total includes 944 people killed in November alone, the deadliest month in Mexico’s history, in terms of drug violence. In addition, the Attorney General confirmed that nearly 15 percent of the victims of the violence were members of law enforcement or the military. He also projected that the country’s drug violence has not yet peaked, and is expected to continue during the first few months of 2009. When the Merida Initiative was announced in October 2007, the George W. Bush Administration made a commitment to “intensify efforts” to combat the trafficking of guns from the U.S. into Mexico. A return to the enforcement of the ban on the import of all assault weapons would help us to live up to this commitment.

Not only is the violence in Mexico already spilling over the border into the U.S., but the prevalence of imported assault weapons in the hands of criminals has made “officer survival” a critical issue for many urban law enforcement agencies. The Miami Police Department has reported a steep rise in the number of murders and other crimes committed with assault weapons; a Romanian WASR-10 (AK-type) assault weapon was used to kill two Fairfax, Virginia police officers in 2006; a Romanian WASR-10 assault weapon was used in a mass shooting that left eight dead at a mall in rural Omaha, Nebraska in 2007. The Associated Press conducted an analysis showing that the number of AK variants traced to crime by ATF has increased from 1,140 in 1993 to 8,547 in 2007.

These are just the sort of incidents and statistics that prompted the George H.W. Bush Administration to take action to halt assault weapons imports in 1989, and we believe demonstrate the importance of returning to enforcing the import ban once again.

We ask that you direct ATF to act in accordance with the 1968 Gun Control Act and return to enforcing the ban on the import of all assault weapons, both those that are fully manufactured abroad as well as those imported as parts. By restoring these important restrictions, we will be able to help reduce violence here in the United States, while also sending an important signal to our friends in Mexico. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Yep, someone is gonna get hurt. More than necessary. If the "Faint of 53" have their way evermore innocent citizens will be in harms way because arms were unavailable, to expensive, or simply intimidated into not owning 'eeev illll' hardware.

The "Faint of 53" have declared you and me to be untrustworthy of having firearms (may as well include them all as that is their intent) and just as likely, they are actually afraid of us.

Likely without realizing it, the Faint of 53 (so named 'cause they fainted in the face of duty) have fallen squarely in the Nazi pattern trap laid by Thomas Dodd & Company (thanks LBJ) in 1968 with the Nazi patterned GCA. Plenty of documentation noting Dodd's fascination with Nazi gun control and we know how that ended. (sometimes I wonder)

And that trap is as simple as sacrificing Liberty for additional 'security'. Quicksand. Eventually, little or no Liberty is left. The results are obvious to even the most casual of observers with a modicum of historical knowledge.

So what should be done? Easy. Maybe. Now that the Faint of 53 have played such an easily hammered card, the "300 Patriots" should draft a letter refuting the Faint of 53 as their letter lacks logic and proof. (provided of course 300 patriots could be found of the remainder of the House?) Secondly the "300 Patriots" should write a scathing letter enumerating the BATFE's illegal actions of hassling/intimidating and wrongly persecuting/prosecuting numerous FFL's and individuals. The list is long and agregious. Reiterate that government is the servant not the master as it ass/u/mes. Cite the Constitution and remind folks of their sworn oath of office. Fair warning, should they choose to (continue to) ignore it.

Thirdly, in the letter, the "300 Patriots" should propose numerous pieces of legislation, in concept, extolling the virtues of individual freedoms to own and carry firearms. This is easily proven as 'safe' for the population at large if necessary by many documents including FBI stats and works by Knox, DB Kopel and many others.

Next the concepts should come Bills aimed sqaurely at preserving individual Liberties and thus, the Republic. The Bills should be filed and brought before committees in series fashion so as to continually pepper the system with pro Liberty actions. Of course, such Bills will get stomped on in committee with the liberal majority and not likely ever get to the floor, but that's not the point. Consume their time with pro legislation and force as much discussion as possible, thereby delineating those for and against liberty just as the "Faint of 53" have done in declaring their allegiance to collectivism with their anti-liberty, anti-constitutional scribblings.

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This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

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